We continue our journey through Lent, knowing that before we can celebrate the Easter morning resurrection, we must first stand at the Good Friday cross. And as we journey we ponder our covenant with God and God’s covenant with us.

What is covenant anyway? It’s best described as an agreement, a promise which involves mutual rights and responsibilities. So covenant can be but many things and different things depending on the people within it. But one necessary ingredient in any covenant is trust.

Last week, we heard God’s promise to Noah. God covenanted with him that never again would God send destruction into the world. The covenant was sealed with the rainbow in the sky. God has kept that covenant to this day and we can trust God to continue to do so.

By the time God spoke to Abram, covenant had evolved. God now expected that Abram would be an active participant in the covenant. God required that Abram "walk before God and be blameless." In return for this obedience, God would make him the ancestor of a multitude of nations and his wife would bear a child.

This is not the first time God has made this promise to Abram. In Chapter 15 we read God’s promise of an heir for Abram and that his descendants will be as numerous as stars in the heavens. Several years have passed and although the slave woman Hagar has borne a son, Ishmael for Abram, his wife Sarai remains childless. At that time, to have no children was considered to be a sign of God’s disfavour, so this was a family that suffered greatly.

They had also experienced tremendous loss. They were sorely tested by the loss of their land and the loss of nationhood during the Babylonian exile.

How did Abram keep covenant in those times of suffering? Remember – Abram was before Moses, before the giving of the Law and before the prophets. Abram had God’s word but there was no one to help him keep the covenant. Those years must have been difficult for Abram. God gave him a promise and then seemingly disappeared.

By the time of God’s second speaking to Abram, old age had overtaken him. He was 99 years old and Sarai was 90. Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was now thirteen years old. When God again spoke his words of promise, Abram fell on the ground laughing. We read that Sarai also laughed when she heard the news.

What caused such laughter? Was it frustration and the irony of having grown old while waiting for God to keep covenant? Was it joy at knowing that God had not disappeared and the hope lived yet for fulfillment of the promise? Was it an embarrassed laugh of relief? Was it an incredulous laugh at the prospect of a 90 and a 99 year old becoming parents?

More important than the laughter, though, was God’s faithfulness and Abram’s trust in God.

Trust is an integral part of keeping covenant. We enter into many covenants in our lifetime – some monumental and life-changing and others less so.

Whether the promise takes the form of marriage vows or the offer to organize a church supper or the covenant you and your teenager make regarding curfews, friends, etc., trust is necessary or the covenant will fail. And what you promise to do, you must do. What God promises, God delivers – and so must we.

Abram and Sarai were not much different from you and me. Not just in their times of despair but in their relationship with God. They faltered. They had times when they didn’t quite believe God’s promise. They laughed at what may have seemed a cruel hope that could not be realized.

When you are tested, remember Abram and Sarai. Remember those ancient people and remember what happened to them.

God kept the covenant, that promise made years before. Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah and together in their old age they had a son. In obedience to God’s word, they named their son Isaac and Abraham did become the ancestor of a multitude of nations. According to the website www.adherents.com, 54% - more than half - of the world’s population identify themselves as Jewish, Christian or Muslim and all three faiths trace their roots back to God’s encounter with Abraham. Each one of us here today is living proof of God’s covenant word – we are truly as numerous as the stars in the sky!

So – when life gives you more lemons than chocolates, follow the example of Abraham and Sarah – and trust. Remember that God has also made a covenant with you and me. God has promised us life eternal through Jesus Christ. If we believe in him and if we keep faith with him, doing the very best that we can to live as he taught us to live, we will be honouring the covenant.

It is a covenant sealed with the blood of Christ on the cross nearly 2000 years ago and God will not forget.

But we must remember that covenant is a two-way street. God promised much to Abraham but God also expected him to "walk before God and be blameless." God expects us to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" ……and to ………."love your neighbour as yourself."

These are our responsibilities in our covenant relationship with God.

Trusting is the test in covenant. And trusting must be rooted not just in your head but in your heart. You must trust without reservation.

That’s not easy to do. We all may want to trust and do trust – to a certain degree – but many of us hold back a bit. It’s difficult to commit fully.

There is an old story about trust. I’ve read different versions but this is the one I like best.

One day George announced to his neighbour that he was going to take his wheelbarrow and go across Niagara Falls on a wire. The neighbour asked, "When are you going to do this George?"

He replied, "When I’m ready."

George began to practice every day in his back yard. He set a wire a couple of feet off the ground and approximately the length that he would have to go. For weeks the neighbour would watch him go back and forth, back and forth across this wire with his big wheelbarrow.

The weeks turned into months and George finally perfected it. Then he announced that he was ready for the big test. The neighbor went to the Falls to watch him. George was about to go across when he saw his neighbour standing right there in the front row.

George asked him "Do you believe that I can do this?" His neighbour said "Yes".

"Are you certain?"

"Yes George, I’ve seen you practice day after day, rain or shine, so there is no doubt that you can do it."

George looked him straight in the eyes, "Do you really, really believe that I can do it?"

"Yes George, I really believe".

"Then", said George, "Get in the wheelbarrow."

That’s the kind of faith and trust God requires of us if we are to live in covenant relationship with God.

Are you ready to climb into God’s wheelbarrow and step out into the unknown?

Amen